phantom allergy: what to say

[Anonymous]

OP here again. Two things. First off to the poster who referenced my son giving his friend the pb. He did not do that. His friend found it and was insistent that he could have it. My concern with what my son did was that he didn't immediately tell me because we had talked about the 'no nuts' and 'foods with nuts' prior to the playdate. I've been strongly reiterating to him the difference between tattling and ensuring personal safety at the risk of upsetting someone. Also, not that I want to make excuses because the issues are so serious, as I mentioned we don't have any allergies in our family and have not come across this so immediately so I really do think he was lacking a context and I had told him his friend knew what he could and could not eat. He won't be lacking context in future.

Meanwhile, last night I got a message from the kid's dad inviting my son to go to a movie with them when he has his DS for a coming weekend and also saying he was interested to talk to me. Having copped it from DH and DCUM and still somewhat confused over the whole strange situation, I've sort of been putting off calling him back. In any case I'll meet him through sport soon.

[Anonymous]

My son had a strong peanut allergy when he was little. It was bad at age 5 and was completely gone at age 8.

Things can change.

[Anonymous]

Yes, my neighbor has a daughter that tested positive for peanuts or nuts or both- can't remember- at a really early age like 1 or 2 but because of some accidental ingestion at parties and other places where mom was not they discovered she was no longer allergic. She's 13 now and I think they discovered she was no longer allergic when she was five.

[Anonymous]

Pp here- as someone whose own daughter has an allergy to nuts, I would love to know if she ate them with no reaction! You should tell her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my twins were 11 months old, we tried strawberries. They loved them and one of them who had bad cradle cap and eczema on his legs the eczema would flare extremely red for a day or two after he had strawberries. It took us 3-4 times before we realized the link. At 14 months, we tried them with peanut butter. Within 2 minutes after 1 cracker with about a teaspoon or less of PB, both developed pretty significant bright red hives on their chest, arms and neck and were scratching a lot. We administered benadryl and called our pediatrician's on-call service. After about 5 minutes, the hives had calmed down and there was only a slight pink tinge and they stopped scratching. When the pediatrician called back about 15 minutes later (about 20 minutes after the incident), she said that we did the right thing, to monitor them for 24 hours and come in Monday (it was on a Saturday at lunch) and she would check. She checked them and said they were fine and gave us a scrip for the epi-pen. At 2.5 we finally had an allergy panel and the one tested negative for all but mild environmental allergies (dust, mold, pollen). The one that had eczema tested mild (below the normal level they call allergic, but still a reaction) for PB and negative for all but environmental allergies like the other twin. The pediatrician said that was good but still refilled the epipen scrip just in case. We keep an epipen at school and one in the bag of kid supplies we keep in the car/house but have not had an incident since.

We do tell people that there is a mild allergy to peanut butter, but that the allergy panel was close to negative, so not a serious concern. I can believe that the child may have had a very early reaction to peanut butter but no longer reacts, and the Mom has just not changed her position since he was a toddler.

My daughter had a similar reaction to peanut butter. Just a small patch of hives on her face, and shortly after, the hives just went away. She had some candy that was made in a factory that processes peanuts and got small hives, and said she didn't like it. She accidentally had a bite of peanut butter cracker and no reaction.

Her doctor has not recommended further testing or epipen yet, but it still makes me nervous. I know what DCUM would say - EPIPEN STAT.

In OP's case, it may be a growing out of the allergy situation, it may be a mild reaction that is not obvious or pops up later, it may have been precautionary on the mother and doctor's part.

Very passive aggressive of dad to give him nuts and encourage him to keep secrets from his mother. Very strange and disturbing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my twins were 11 months old, we tried strawberries. They loved them and one of them who had bad cradle cap and eczema on his legs the eczema would flare extremely red for a day or two after he had strawberries. It took us 3-4 times before we realized the link. At 14 months, we tried them with peanut butter. Within 2 minutes after 1 cracker with about a teaspoon or less of PB, both developed pretty significant bright red hives on their chest, arms and neck and were scratching a lot. We administered benadryl and called our pediatrician's on-call service. After about 5 minutes, the hives had calmed down and there was only a slight pink tinge and they stopped scratching. When the pediatrician called back about 15 minutes later (about 20 minutes after the incident), she said that we did the right thing, to monitor them for 24 hours and come in Monday (it was on a Saturday at lunch) and she would check. She checked them and said they were fine and gave us a scrip for the epi-pen. At 2.5 we finally had an allergy panel and the one tested negative for all but mild environmental allergies (dust, mold, pollen). The one that had eczema tested mild (below the normal level they call allergic, but still a reaction) for PB and negative for all but environmental allergies like the other twin. The pediatrician said that was good but still refilled the epipen scrip just in case. We keep an epipen at school and one in the bag of kid supplies we keep in the car/house but have not had an incident since.

We do tell people that there is a mild allergy to peanut butter, but that the allergy panel was close to negative, so not a serious concern. I can believe that the child may have had a very early reaction to peanut butter but no longer reacts, and the Mom has just not changed her position since he was a toddler.

My daughter had a similar reaction to peanut butter. Just a small patch of hives on her face, and shortly after, the hives just went away. She had some candy that was made in a factory that processes peanuts and got small hives, and said she didn't like it. She accidentally had a bite of peanut butter cracker and no reaction.

Her doctor has not recommended further testing or epipen yet, but it still makes me nervous. I know what DCUM would say - EPIPEN STAT.

In OP's case, it may be a growing out of the allergy situation, it may be a mild reaction that is not obvious or pops up later, it may have been precautionary on the mother and doctor's part.

Very passive aggressive of dad to give him nuts and encourage him to keep secrets from his mother. Very strange and disturbing.

Please, please make an appointment with a pediatric allergic who specializes in food allergies. Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love all this DCUM ridiculousness! People love a good conspiracy theory. Munchausen by proxy is more rare than peanut allergies and the liklihood is that the kid has or had a legitimate allergy.

Thank you, I was about to post the same thing. How can people assume such an outlandish scenario about this kid's mom? Bizarre.

[Anonymous]

FFS OP, call the dad and tell him what happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Two things. First off to the poster who referenced my son giving his friend the pb. He did not do that. His friend found it and was insistent that he could have it. My concern with what my son did was that he didn't immediately tell me because we had talked about the 'no nuts' and 'foods with nuts' prior to the playdate. I've been strongly reiterating to him the difference between tattling and ensuring personal safety at the risk of upsetting someone. Also, not that I want to make excuses because the issues are so serious, as I mentioned we don't have any allergies in our family and have not come across this so immediately so I really do think he was lacking a context and I had told him his friend knew what he could and could not eat. He won't be lacking context in future.

Meanwhile, last night I got a message from the kid's dad inviting my son to go to a movie with them when he has his DS for a coming weekend and also saying he was interested to talk to me. Having copped it from DH and DCUM and still somewhat confused over the whole strange situation, I've sort of been putting off calling him back. In any case I'll meet him through sport soon.

I thought you said you hid it on the top shelf of the pantry. Your guest found it? How did that happen?

I've read threads like this on DCUM before, but about moms who say their kids have allergies so they don't gain weight. OP, I am a bit suspicious of YOU. Not sure what syndrome you may have yet but the entire situation described in this thread is highly unlikely.